Olympics keep firebugs home, dollar steady

Sydney: The word is out that God is an "Ozzie" and he also seems to be, like million of His Australian compatriots, a true sports lover. It would be otherwise, hard to explain the number of factors which are going in favor of the Olympics games.

Few days back the organisers were worried about the prolonged cold weather affecting both the spectators and the spectated. But for the past few days sunny, warm weather has certainly become the conversation starter around the Olympics Park.

The organisers must be finding it hard to believe their luck as the box office has recorded the highest sales of Olympics tickets ever.

God also got to be an Australian for another reason. The worst nightmare of the Olympics games organisers i.e., the Sydney railway network has been working in a miraculously smooth fashion.

Most of the Sydneysiders would like Olympics to stay in this harbor city forever as the railway system, dogged by a number of perennial problems, is functioning even better than the pre-Olympics days.

While Olympics seem to have solved, though temporarily, Sydney commuters' problems, it has also brought cheers to the Queensland firefighters.

Queensland authorities have revealed that the beginning of the school holidays has not triggered a usual spurt in the bushfires. It is believed by the experts in the north Australian state that the firebugs among the school students lit the fires deliberately in this period.

The Queensland fire authorities and experts are giving the credit for this lull to, basically, Olympics. They believe that the firebugs are sitting home towatch Olympics on the television.

Last week Queensland authorities had blamed Olympics advertising blitz for impeding their education programmes and thus, in a way, Olympics hype was made to share the blame for bushfires. And now this turnaround.

God the Australian has also come to the rescue of the beleaguered Australian dollar as it has steadied due to, as experts feel, Olympics. Olympics seems to have lured the traders away from the Australian money markets as country has come under the grip of Olympics-mania.

This lack of activity in the markets has saved Australian dollar, also called "Aussie", from testing new depths. Dollar had dived to all-time low of 54.83 cents against the greenback on Friday but it retrieved some lost ground on the back of Olympics driven markets' inertia and climbed back to the range close to 55 cents for an American dollar.

Besides affecting Australian dollar, Sydney Olympics are also casting shadow, though negatively, over the Australian bourses Australian index closed down 14 points lower on Friday to 3,280.

India Abroad News Service